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Abstract

This master thesis is about environmental issues in a local context, and how we can achieve
sustainable development based on a cultural perspective. The main issue is about why the
government believe that local usage of the mountain highland of Blefjell is said be a threat
towards sustainable development. By this I want to put fourth an issue for discussion by
asking what motivates the local landowners and others in the community to act upon the
mountain of Blefjell`s natural resources. It therefore discusses how theories of particular lifemodes
can be used as an analytical tool in order to develop local sustainable development in a
cultural context. Life-modes are an opportunity to see each individual actor in a broader sense
that connects the people in Flesberg Municipality to their natural environment. This is a
subject of embodied and cognitive experiences that is connected to Tim Ingolds perspectives
on different perceptions of the world, the world as a life-place (from the inside) and the world
as a globe (outside), which shows us different understandings of nature.
In contrast to this understanding of nature the government has a different perspective of what
is appropriate behaviour in the matter of exploitation and preservation of the non- human
natural environment. This has implications for how the local community can develop into a
better understanding of the environment. Their local perspective that includes both human and
non- human environment, and do not make an artificial distinction between culture and
nature. In this the local community and the government planning have to meet these
challenges by creating a place where local participation can be used as a tool for cultural led
sustainable development. There is no absolute solution in this question about sustainability; it
is based on healthy relationships between the human and the non- human environment in the
local cultural context. In this I conclude that there are possibilities within this perspective, but
it is depending on how the state and the local authorities together with the community can use
local constituted knowledge in planning.